My banner above says, “Where Writing, Christianity and Speculative Fiction Interact and You Can Comment On My Fiction – So We Can Learn TOGETHER”.
I’ve meant that from the day I posted my first entry on
August 1, 2007 six years ago.
Hardly anyone posts a response these days, but from what I
read, that’s because:
There are over a billion FaceBook pages. I’m there: https://www.facebook.com/guy.stewart.946
There are half a billion Twitter account users. I’m there:
@gstewart75 (https://twitter.com/gstewart75)
Outlook has almost another half billion. I’m there: gstewart75@hotmail.com
LinkedIn has 225 million. I’m there, too.
Dropbox has over 100 million. Working with a friend of mine
on Dropbox.
According to my source, in 2012, there were approximately
31,000,000 of which 35% use eBlogger like I do. That comes out to 10,850,000 so
I really DON’T feel bad that people don’t comment. I DO know that somewhere in
the neighborhood of 35,000 people have stopped by during that time.
I DO know that there are 462 Comments and that I have fairly
regular commenters.
So what have I learned in the past 6 years?
Lots – I learned that I LOVE writing in blog-bits! What are
they? If you look at my sidebar, you’ll see A PINE IN THE CITY ALONE (picture
book), A SHORT LONG JOURNEY NORTH (young adult/middle grade historical), LOVE
IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION (young adult science fiction), and A MARTIAN
HOLIDAY (science fiction novel for adults with a Christian worldview).
I’ve written three other picture books thus far (one went to
my agent but she didn’t think it was strong enough, the second and third I’m
still revising); two YA/MG novels (one I sent to my agent and she found it
confusing, the other I’m waiting to publish my first NON-genre novel to jump
into the genre novels for kids); a fantasy novel I am also waiting on my
publication of one of TWO novels that are out there in Submission Land; and a
Christian novel whose elevator pitch is “Jan Karon’s MITFORD series meets CROSS
AND THE SWITCHBLADE (or for a more contemporary title, you could try CHASING
THE DRAGON)”.
Have I sold any books? Nope.
Have I sold any stories? Yep. (See above for my most recent
publication.)
Am I constantly writing?
As my Scandinavian forebears might have said, “You betcha!”
I also learned that when I publish something in my blog, it’s
considered published. Of course, the books I write are ONLY initial drafts – I play
with ideas, characters, tone, and theme. That’s why if you read my posts in
order, you’ll see that not only do the things I listed change – but names,
genders and tenses change as well. When I do the final draft, all of that will
be resolved – but that’s what I need the input for! I want to know what is
working and what is not. I solicit the views of people of various beliefs as
well – I do NOT feel called to write for the evangelical Christian market
(except for some few, very specific projects). I need to know if my own faith
is peeking through TOO MUCH. I don’t want to bury what I believe, but I don’t
want to be offensive to my market, either.
I want to do what Jesus did – tell interesting stories that
are perfectly legitimate on the surface of them, but can be interpreted on a
deeper level as well. “The Prodigal Son” is an excellent piece of flash fiction
(they called them parables in Jesus’ day) by itself. Makes you sigh and wish
that your family was like that! (I talked about this long, long ago: http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/writing-advice-parable-storythat.html).
But it can be read on a spiritual level as well and it was “for those who have
ears to hear”.Anyway, I HAVE to get this posted, so I’ll end now. I LOVE
blogging. I love comments.
‘nuff said.
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